August 16th, 2013 at 9:32 am

Welcome to our weekly roundup of the best posts from the blogs of academic publishers! As always, if you particularly enjoy something or think that we missed an important post, please let us know in the comments.

World War II ended 68 years ago this Thursday, and in honor of the occasion, fifteeneightyfour, the blog of Cambridge University Press, has an interview with Hatsue Shinohara looking back at the end of the war and discussing a crusade by a group of international lawyers “in the interwar years who wanted to abolish war as an institution.”

Talk radio does not necessarily have the best reputation as a place of civilized intellectual discourse, but at Island Press Field Notes, Lucy Moore offers a defense of talk radio: “And what do I hear, what is the subtext of almost every caller? The need for respect. This mirrors my experience mediating highly controversial disputes.”

Does the fact that, in “late July 2013, Twitter posts regarding Prince George, the latest addition to the British royal family, outpaced those related to climate change by more than a 10 to 1 margin” signal the doom of our planet? At the JHU Press Blog, Brian Southwell argues that “what’s “trending” is noteworthy not only as a forecast of water cooler chat but also as a social force that warrants our attention.”

The MIT Press Blog is running fascinating movie posts in their “Summer Blockbusters” series throughout the summer. The latest installment is “Moving Innovation,” an interview with CGI expert Tom Sito on the development of computer animation as an art form and cinematic technique.

Can architecture design buildings that respond adequately to Native American culture while also accounting for modern and environmental needs? At the University of Minnesota Press Blog, Joy Monice Malnar discusses various new developments in architecture on tribal land.

At the UNC Press Blog, Sarah Caroline Thuesen looks at efforts to rescind legal measures put in place to ensure the desegregation of schools, and warns against retreating from such formal strategies too quickly.

Lisa Belkin’s famous (or infamous) article, “The Opt-Out Revolution,” was published ten years ago. At From the Square, the blog of NYU Press, Bernie D. Jones looks back at the controversy surrounding the article at the time of its publication, and discusses how recent events have shown that Belkin’s argument was problematic at best.

The OUPblog ran a couple of excellent posts on literary studies this week. First, Ian Duncan examines the controversial historical choices made in Sir Walter Scott’s historical fictions, particularly in Scott’s creation of “Scott-land” in Waverley and of medieval England in Ivanhoe. Then, Justine McConnell breaks down the use and repurposing of Homer’s Odyssey in various works of post-colonial and modern fiction.

Thanks again for reading this week’s roundup! Have a great weekend, and leave any thoughts in the comments!